We are in the home straight. The hard work accomplished by the team over the last few months is now coming to fruition with momentum starting to show in registrations. We secured the front page of the Bellevue Reporter print edition, which went out to 35K households this Friday. The weather is improving and our social media outreach remains active. Now we finish the remaining tasks to ensure a great race day on the 23rd April.

Registrations (Howard’s Analysis)

We are just a week away from the big event on April 23. The attached registration summary at this “one-week out” point shows we are 542 short on “# of registrations” compared to a year ago but up $4,112 on the “dollar value” of these 2017 registrations. We are particularly short in this 2017 year on runners in the 10K event, with only 330 signed up right now with a week to go. This is less than half the 705 10K runners signed up one week before in the 2016 year.

Just in the past week, we registered 134 new runners/walkers compared to 145 new runners/walkers in the same week a year ago. Yet, these fewer new runners brought in $1,125 more dollars ($5,263 less $4,138) than the comparable group a year ago. Overall, we stand at $37,405 in dollars raised in registrations with a week to go compared with only $33,293 at the same point in the 2016 year. This advantage of $4,112 in registration dollars for 2017 should hold up in the final week as the price of registration increases $5 per adult registrant this next Thursday at midnight. This $4,000+ increase in the 2017 year is good news financially as it should more than pay for the extra cost of shirts incurred for this year’s event.

As for the total number of runners/walkers to expect next Sunday, it is becoming a real challenge to hit the 2,000 target for “# of runners/walkers”. The likely number of participants on April 23 may fall just a bit short of this targeted figure. Good weather being predicted by some for this next week can hopefully reduce the size of this projected shortfall in runners/walkers.

Sponsorship

We have sent out one last reach out email to our sponsors, via our club members, to encourage more participation from them in terms of runners and volunteers. We have included our Bellevue Reporter story to make sure they have something that demonstrates the impact that they will be making with their involvement in the cause.

Kendra Scott has agreed to turn the prizes into gift cards, so we can reward the winners from both the Men’s and Women’s races. I will be picking these up in lieu of the jewelry initially offered. Also, Costco has come in with donations of water, bananas and oranges that makes them an in-kind sponsor since these donations are in excess of $1,000. We have their logo on our website now.

We are expecting Parallels to deliver their runners for the event this week, and they are paying for their participation, which is something that OfferUp has also done and is a generous way to encourage engagement with their staff as well as donating more to the cause. Something to keep in mind for the future as another way we can encourage our partners to be more involved with us.

For those of us who have brought in sponsors, let’s follow up with them to make sure that they will want to have a booth in place at the race village. This will help Colleen with her efforts in getting this set up.

We will organize an event after the race to thank our sponsors in the summer. It will be a good opportunity to invite them to the club and get recognition for their involvement, while demonstrating the strength of Rotary.

Marketing

We are now at the end of the main activities in terms of the marketing efforts for promoting our event this year. We have accomplished a lot and I want to thank the team for their involvement in this area. Our reach has certainly expanded into new areas that leverage our community’s changing environment and this will not only benefit us in terms of the race, but also in terms of securing members in the future. We must continue to build on this momentum.

Even as we draw to a close with our marketing and promotional efforts it is worth noting that we have still have some activities underway:

Our Linkedin posting on the Mayoral Proclamation has garnered over 1700 views and more than 30 likes – this is significant in terms of a posting via Linkedin.

Other social media channels have also picked up our Bellevue Reporter positing and the coverage has been widespread, from Orswell Events all the way through to Zach Scott and Sounders channels. It continues to drive views and also donations, as well registrations.

Orswell Events launched an Easter promotion for this weekend to help drive registrants.

Amazon reached out to all its 11,500 employees through its weekly newsletter to promote our event and they will also be placing our poster in all of its buildings to help raise visibility. We have made one last reach out to our sponsors asking them to do the same.

Kindering has highlighted Mimi’s Leadership Award on their website: https://kindering.org/about-us/. This is something that we do need to retain for the future as it will help define our club as thought leaders in this space.

Our banners have been setup across the bridges in the City, although a little delayed. However, we will see benefit from these as commuters travel back and forth under them for the rest of the time before Race Day.

Packet Pick Up – this will be another opportunity to drum up support for the event and I think we should think of an opportunity to use our internal banners and backdrop to raise our visibility, assuming this is allowed.

Uwajimaya – we have delivered the vouchers to Uwajimaya, so these can be packed into their customers’ bags and help us generate more participation for the race.

We have 232 volunteers and we need 299, so we are shy of our target for volunteers. We need to scramble to make sure we get these volunteers, so any assistance that can be lent to Dustin’s call for action here is very much appreciated. I know that a number of us will be reaching out to our contacts with the Autism community, Kindering, SOWA, sponsors and others to ensure we do not fall short of the requirements that we have to meet with volunteers.

Booths

Costco has come forward with water for their booth at the Race Village and they are now an in-kind sponsor. They will make up one of 32 booths for our event this year, so our race village is going to be a busy one.

It is not too late to try and find a couple more businesses to get involved, so feel free to continue your efforts in finding booth sponsors. It is an easy way for us to generate additional income toward our goal for funds.

We will need to create a 10×10 space for the myTeam Triumph group, so they can get prepared for the start of the race as they will have wheelchairs and other special needs to be taken care of when they arrive. I will work with Colleen on the details.

Please follow up with Colleen should you have any questions pertaining to the booth sponsors and race village layout.

Logistics

Some updates with respect to the logistics for the race itself that I think you should all be aware of this week. Clearly, there is always fluidity in this area right up to the actual start of the event and it is good for us to be aware of these changes.

Course – Due to incomplete road construction there is a revision to the start/end area of the race. We are working with Mazen and Sgt. Sanabria and Orswell Events is working with our team to make sure the specifics are managed accordingly. It will add some complexity to the start/end of the race, as well as changes to the Kids Dash.

Vans – We will be renting one of the vans for the event. I am closing the conversations with Eastside Prep to secure their two vans for the day. By having a rented van we can mitigate their concern around availability for the school on the following day. I will have Eastside Preps confirmation – one way or the other – this coming Monday.

Kids Dash – Due to the course change made above we will need to make some minor changes to the start and finish for the kids’ event. I will make sure that Traci is in the loop, so she can sort this out on the day.

T-Shirts – I was anticipating delivery on the 11th April. I have asked the vendor to confirm delivery and I suspect that they will probably arrive around the 18t April. This will still allow us to get them in place for the packet pick-up on 22nd April.

Registration and packet pick up – Francine is leading the charge here. She is working with Katherine’s team for the packet pick up on the Saturday (4/22) and Rogue will have the materials available for the day. Some of us will be volunteering on the day. Francine will also be looking for iPads to support the activity and will reach out to us in the event she needs more. We have Orswell Events working on some laminated sheets that detail the course route for 5K and 10K, so we can share with the shoppers to encourage participation. It looks like we have all the people we need for registration on Race Day and Francine will be taking point, starting from 5:30am on the day.

Logistics – We know that we will have to pay more for barricades, so this is an additional expense that we need to cover that is unexpected. Our need for course volunteers is the area of risk that we need to close out in advance of the event and the call to action has gone out to make sure we get this taken care of for Dustin. We will also have an earlier start for myTeam Triumph – Puget Sound, who are disabled and will be have someone helping them with the run, so they will require an earlier start and a 10×10 area in the Race Village to get prepared. I will send out details to the respective parties on what is required this morning. I am sure there will be other details that will crop up and we will handle over the remaining few days.

Communications on the day – I will be putting together a call sheet for the people on the ground next Sunday. This will make it easier for the coordinators to use their cell phones as the means for communicating with each other on the day. I will share this via email and try to get a small card made up as well.

Membership booth – Carmela and Wendi have agreed to support the membership booth, which we will setup in the same way as we did at the Seahawks 12K. It is colorful and really does a good job of communicating what our club does in the community. We will also have a couple of Interactors from Forest Ridge supporting the booth. Finally, we will be handing out cards to interested parties that will invite them to join the club for breakfast to introduce them to our membership. Finally, we will also be handing out the Kendra Scott brochures to encourage people to visit their shop, so we can secure the 20% from them on goods purchased at the event.

MC agenda – I will be working with Tim Leahy on Tuesday next week to go through the specifics in terms of VIPs, Sponsors and other guests (myTeam Triumph – wheel chair start). We will turn this into the announcements for the day and communicate the order of ceremonies when completed next week.

Steve Roberts, Steve Luplow, Tim Leahy, Francine Weaver, Dustin Walling and Orswell Events are working through the remaining details for the plan on the upcoming weekend. They will work with the rest of the Race Committee as and when they need our assistance, so please remain available to support their requests. Adaptability is going to be the key to our success in this areaJ.

Finally

This will be my last weekly update for the team. I hope that these have been helpful in keeping you all informed of the activities that are a part of this large project, while helping to support the cross collaboration efforts of our team. My hope is that these updates will help to form the basis of a playbook that will allow future Race Directors to successfully operate the event going forward.

As this will be my last missive on the topic of the All in for Autism event, then I want to let you all know that it has been a privilege to be associated with you all in the execution of this endeavor. It is no mean feat that we are able to make this the “biggest event” for Bellevue, according to our Mayor John Stokes.

You should all be proud of what you have contributed in terms of your time and results for our club’s major fund raiser. It really is an example of “Service above Self” in so many ways and for this I, and those we will benefit, truly thank you for making it happen. I hope you will all be able to join everyone at the 520 Bar and Grill for an after-event celebration that will include donuts, coffee and specialty drinks.

Meta

Welcome to the BBRC

Chartered in 1985, the Bellevue Breakfast Rotary Club is home to more than 100 community-minded individuals dedicated to serving above self and participating in Rotary International's mission to promote understanding, goodwill, and world peace

Our Mission

To help disadvantaged children and their family lead happier, healthier, and more productive lives.

Our Vision

To cultivate a dynamic membership that enhances our club values to serve our local and world communities, providing systemic and enduring change.